I'm located in Eastern N.C and I recently purchased a TiVo Premiere with a plan of getting rid of DirecTV and going strictly OTA. Unfortunately, poor signal has forced me into now switching to TWC. I've read a few posts and have become a little concerned. I have an appointment for tomorrow morning for service to be installed. They are supposed to be bringing the card and tuner adapter when the come. Could someone maybe around the same area give me a heads up on what to expect or maybe some tips? Thanks a lot.

Not to be a downer BUT with my recent TWC installation in NC the first 3 techs did not bring a cable card or TA - despite my explicitly imploring CS to note that on the work order. I finally went to the local office and picked them up myself.

Many TWC techs have little or no experience with TiVos. Chances are you will know more than they do.

If it's any comfort, the people in the local office are probably really nice.

Not to be confused with helpful or having a clue. But at least they're nice -- or at least not antagonistic.

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So far it's not to encouraging. Then again spending an hour and twenty-seven minutes on the phone yesterday with someone in the Philippines that couldn't even understand what package I wanted, I told him just put me down for the starter pack and I would upgrade through the local office. I received an email at 9pm last night claiming there was a problem with my order and to contact them immediately. I called only to find out that the whole order had been cancelled by the Filipino agent, thus the service call for today was cancelled to. Luckily I got a hold of someone stateside in technical support. He claimed that TiVo wasn't even compatible with TWC. After directing him to their own website, he recanted and got his supervisor. Long story short, after another hour and twelve minutes on the phone, I got signed up for the package I wanted and they are supposed to send a technician out tomorrow morning to hook all this up. Needless to say discouraging may not be a strong enough description at the moment and TWC is definitely not earning any confidence points thus far. I'll post any successes or failures I encounter.

Disclaimer: I would like to say I hold no animosity toward the fine people of the Philippines. The problem I have is the outsourcing to companies that place no emphasis on learning the language of their client base. Thank You

Cray, tough start. I had similar issues with orders being canceled. I can't wait until I get a bill - that should be another battle.

My experience with the Filipinos was that their English was great and they were very polite. But my requests for CableCard and TA just didn't trickle down to the local techs - who were also very nice. Unfortunately they didn't have the benefit of proper training.

If any of us ran a business like that we'd be out of business in a month. I moved from MA where Comcast and Verizon actually competed so there was some incentive for them - not the virtual monopoly that TWC has in my neighborhood. (There is DirecTV but not compatible with my TiVo HD.)

Everyone I have encountered has also been extremely polite. My problem has been similar to yours in that no one seems to have a clue about the services they are selling. Investing in proper training does not seem to be a priority for TWC. The person I spoke to in tech support said he had been there for a couple of years and hadn't even heard they offered service for TiVo. I will say he was the most helpful out of the five people I had spoken with yesterday. He even thanked me for the learning experience.

Ok here it goes. After waiting for my appointment yesterday between 7-9am, the technician showed up around 10:30. He was very apologetic and said they scheduled me with another technician and it was his day off. Feeling I may have been a little to harsh with my judgment with TWC, I decided just to let everything go up until now and start fresh. He came in and I showed him over to where my television was. He bemt down and looked with a puzzled look on his face, " Is this a TiVo, exactly what does it do? " he asked. *sigh*.
He was an older gentleman like myself so I thought ok, I can see where this might be unfamiliar to someone. I explained what it was and what I had read about the install process. He was very nice and very professional. As a matter of fact he pulled all new cable instead of using the directv coax that was already under the house and even set a new outside box. After the cable instal he cam in to work on the TiVo. When installing the card we found it needed a firmware update. He left to do another job and two and a half hours later when the update was finally done he came back to finish. He got everything paired up and going, but couldn't stick around for the TiVo to do its downloads. I didn't blame him a bit since it said it would take about an hour. So here are the results, After everything was said and done, I'm missing about a dozen or so channels, they are there but they wont come in. I called last night and the walked me through a bunch of different fixes none of which worked. So, they are sending someone out this afternoon. After which I gather will be another two and a half hour update again.

I do have a question maybe someone cane help me with. They did not send a usb cable. He called someone at the office and they said they had never used them and didn't have any there. He even called his supervisor who had been helping with the install and he told him they weren't really necessary and it would work fine without it. Has anybody ever heard anything like this? Thanks

So, you got a Tuning Adapter (TA) also, right? The USB cable is the medium through which the TA and the TiVo communicate. You won't be able to get any of your Switched Digital Video (SDV) channels without this.

There should be a green light on the front of your TA. It should be solid green. Without the USB cable I believe that it blinks on/off 6 times then pauses and starts blinking again. When all is well it should be solid green.

You really need the USB cable to connect the TA to the Tivo. The channels you are missing are the SDV channels and the TA must be able to communicate with the Tivo in order to properly tune those channels.

This is just a standard USB cable, so if you have one laying around, use that, or just go buy one yourself; a short 3ft cable will be cheap and plenty long enough. When attached, there should be a screen that pops-up on the Tivo indicating the TA has been recognized.

The USB cable used to come in a kit that included the TA and a short coax cable (which was usually junk and needed to be replaced). If you have a TA and a Tivo you need the USB connecting them. Is this a cisco (scientific atlanta) TA?

Can you get into TA diagnostics? If so in the PowerKEY section ... third page, what is the SubExpires date? Of course if the TA isn't authorized it should blink the 8-blink-pause sequence. Also if the TA is operating correctly and the USB is not connected it should blink the 6-blink-pause sequence. Looks like something isn't right. I'm not at all sure that a steady green light means all is well with a TA, although when all is well, the light will be steady.

Can you determine if the missing channels happen to be the ones that are SDV (switched digital video, which is what the TA is needed for)? The cable co should be able to tell you (but good luck on that, only a Tivo owner would ever ask about that). More likely another TWC customer from your region, Eastern NC you said?, can tell you here.

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No I can't get into TA diagnostics. I'm assuming that is one of the functions of the usb cable. I will ask about the channels missing being SDV. I know a few of them are Syfy, H2, BBC America, NFL (Last one being most important.)

SUCCESS!!! The USB cable is an intrical part of the setup. I told the technician what I was told yesterday and he honestly couldn't believe it. It turns out that the technician that did the installation yesterday was a contractor for TWC. Although he did a great job on the install, I was told that the contractors are not supposed to do installations for TiVos, that they are all supposed to be handled in house. As soon as he connected the USB cable all the channels started working as well as some recordings that had disappeared showed back up. I am thrilled to death right now and hope that these are the only problems that I run into. I want to thank everybody so much for the input and the help.

Guys,
I have my own TWC story to tell. I've been a TiVo user since my S1 many years ago, and for a very long time I was a customer of Comcast with my S2 TiVos. While with Comcast, I enjoyed TTG and MRV of EVERY channel, including The premium channels, like HBO.

Fast forward to 2012, and I bought a house 10 miles away, across one of those "invisible lines". The provider here is TWC, and I had heard nothing but good stuff. When I bought the house, I decided to also purchase a new S4 TiVo, since I needed more room. After going around with customer service for 30 days, I had to return the S4, because the TWC CableCards had every channel, including the broadcast ones set to 0x02. No MRV, no TTG. A conversation with TiVo support actually guided me towards keeping my 2 S2 boxes, and adding a third. Their comments led me to believe that the S2 devices cannot honor the cci.

For the last 18 months I've been using those 3 S2 boxes, each with a cable set-top box. I noticed that even though TiVo told me it's not possible, all of HBO, and half of Showtime, and half of CNBC are copy protected, but I dismissed it.

Fast forward to now, and I notice that TiVo released products that can now "catch" a stream from an S4, or a new Roamio. Streaming doesn't really work for me, since I travel to places that do not have TV's, phones, or internet, and it's typically just me & my iPad, so I need TTG to work in order to move the shows to my iPad before traveling.
So... I asked in another thread, if someone knew what the API was to request a stream. I know I can catch a stream with VLC, so I thought if I could just tell an S4 to stream, I could tell my computer to catch, then put it on my iPad, etc... (TTG). The answers varied, but they got me to my next idea:

The M-Card that I put in the S4 TiVo had EVERY channel set to 0x02.

TiVo support told me the S2 TiVos will not honor cci, but mine seem to.

My set-top boxes all have M-Cards in them, and my S2 TiVos sometimes see a copy protect flag sometimes do not.

What if all of the rented CableCards are purposely set to 0x02 for everything, but the CableCards inside my set-top boxes are not. I wonder if I ordered a Roamio, called support, and asked them to pair it with one of the M-cards that I already have, could it work?

Guys,
I have my own TWC story to tell. I've been a TiVo user since my S1 many years ago, and for a very long time I was a customer of Comcast with my S2 TiVos. While with Comcast, I enjoyed TTG and MRV of EVERY channel, including The premium channels, like HBO.

Fast forward to 2012, and I bought a house 10 miles away, across one of those "invisible lines". The provider here is TWC, and I had heard nothing but good stuff. When I bought the house, I decided to also purchase a new S4 TiVo, since I needed more room. After going around with customer service for 30 days, I had to return the S4, because the TWC CableCards had every channel, including the broadcast ones set to 0x02. No MRV, no TTG. A conversation with TiVo support actually guided me towards keeping my 2 S2 boxes, and adding a third. Their comments led me to believe that the S2 devices cannot honor the cci.

For the last 18 months I've been using those 3 S2 boxes, each with a cable set-top box. I noticed that even though TiVo told me it's not possible, all of HBO, and half of Showtime, and half of CNBC are copy protected, but I dismissed it.

Fast forward to now, and I notice that TiVo released products that can now "catch" a stream from an S4, or a new Roamio. Streaming doesn't really work for me, since I travel to places that do not have TV's, phones, or internet, and it's typically just me & my iPad, so I need TTG to work in order to move the shows to my iPad before traveling.
So... I asked in another thread, if someone knew what the API was to request a stream. I know I can catch a stream with VLC, so I thought if I could just tell an S4 to stream, I could tell my computer to catch, then put it on my iPad, etc... (TTG). The answers varied, but they got me to my next idea:

The M-Card that I put in the S4 TiVo had EVERY channel set to 0x02.

TiVo support told me the S2 TiVos will not honor cci, but mine seem to.

My set-top boxes all have M-Cards in them, and my S2 TiVos sometimes see a copy protect flag sometimes do not.

What if all of the rented CableCards are purposely set to 0x02 for everything, but the CableCards inside my set-top boxes are not. I wonder if I ordered a Roamio, called support, and asked them to pair it with one of the M-cards that I already have, could it work?

There is no CCI bit on analog cable channels to set to any value. There's no place in the analog NTSC specs to put it, or provisions in the NTSC specs to respond to its presence.

However, if you're using some sort of cable box to get channels fed into those S2s, the cable box is probably tuning to the digital version of the channels and, perhaps depending on how the CCI bit is set, adding Macrovision to the analog output to the S2s, unless there's some other way to monkey with analog of which I'm not yet aware.

Ah,
Didn't think of it in a macrovision way. I wonder if these CableCards only add the macrovision protection, because the cci byte isn't hard-coded like the "Rented" card was. I seem to recall seeing something on the CC config screen last year when I had the S4 that led me to believe that the "Rented" card was adjusted in a different way then normal.

I hope this doesn't sound dumb, but will I still be able to watch my recorded programs on my TiVo HD without a cable card or subscription? I am guessing yes?

I am about to replace the TiVo HD with a Roamio Pro and then retire the TiVo HD for now, so no cable card and no TiVo subscription. There are some recorded shows on there that I'd still like to watch. I assume I can still access them once I've disconnected service to it?

If not, I'll be sure to watch what I can prior to initiating a transfer of my sub to the Roamio.

I hope this doesn't sound dumb, but will I still be able to watch my recorded programs on my TiVo HD without a cable card or subscription? I am guessing yes?

I am about to replace the TiVo HD with a Roamio Pro and then retire the TiVo HD for now, so no cable card and no TiVo subscription. There are some recorded shows on there that I'd still like to watch. I assume I can still access them once I've disconnected service to it?

If not, I'll be sure to watch what I can prior to initiating a transfer of my sub to the Roamio.

If you are about to buy a new TiVo, use that as leverage to get lifetime on the HD for $99.

Then you can keep using it or sell it after you copy or watch the shows on it and get your $99 back and a bit more.

You may have to play Customer Service Rep roulette, calling back until you get one that will give you the deal, but $99 instead of $499 should be incentive enough to keep dialing.

I agree. When I got my $99 lifetime in June 2012 I had already had 3 years of annual service and threatened to cancel Tivo service and go with a cable co dvr.

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Looks like I'll have to keep trying.. They offered lifetime on it for $399 which she said was $100 off the regular.. Oh, well - I'll keep trying! You'd think at 12 years they would give me a better offer!

Looks like I'll have to keep trying.. They offered lifetime on it for $399 which she said was $100 off the regular.. Oh, well - I'll keep trying! You'd think at 12 years they would give me a better offer!

Did you make sure they knew you were about to buy a Roamio, provided you could change your monthly S3 payments to a one time deal?

Did you make sure they knew you were about to buy a Roamio, provided you could change your monthly S3 payments to a one time deal?

And that if not then no Roamio purchase?

No, I had already purchased the Roamio last week and just got it in the mail and was going to put the TiVO HD XL out of service so I was looking to see if they would give me cheap lifetime for a TiVo that was going to be deactivated otherwise. One rep checked promotions as a result of the Roamio purchase and the best was a MSD for that one for $3.95. The Advanced Customer Service was the one that said $399/lifetime.

No, I had already purchased the Roamio last week and just got it in the mail and was going to put the TiVO HD XL out of service so I was looking to see if they would give me cheap lifetime for a TiVo that was going to be deactivated otherwise. One rep checked promotions as a result of the Roamio purchase and the best was a MSD for that one for $3.95. The Advanced Customer Service was the one that said $399/lifetime.

So, I deactivated it.

If they did that to me after giving the deal to so many others who bought Premieres and lifetimed their S3s, I'd be steamed enough to send that Roamio back to them and tell them where to install it.